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Topic: Onedrive
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| By: Guest | Posted on: Sep 6 2024 at 04:28:06 AM | I can see it's mentioned here a couple of times, but just wondering if anyone is justing Onedrive to store the data file for just a couple of users?
We have tested it, seems to work fine - any reasons its a bad idea?
We are not heavy users, it's more about just having it in a few places. | |
| By: Terry | Posted on: Sep 6 2024 at 10:22:24 AM | | I have tried using Onedrive. I only have 2 users sharing the data base. Unfortunately, it looks like its working fine and then for some reason the sharing seems to get out of sync. This gets very confusing when it happens and requires a lot of work to straighten things out. Not sure why this happens. Very dissapointed. | |
| By: Guest | Posted on: Sep 6 2024 at 12:08:56 PM | Thanks Terry, glad I asked, this was what I was concerned about.
I will have to look at other options. | |
| By: Guest | Posted on: Sep 7 2024 at 07:54:40 AM | OneDrive, DropBox and all those other file sharing things. They can't work with any shared database where users can be updating at the same time
This is how those file sharing things work (or don't)
When using something like OneDrive you are NOT actually sharing a file. OneDrive makes a copy of the file on each user's computer such that each user has their own private copy of the file in a folder on their own computer. When the user makes any edits the edits are ONLY made to the user's private copy.
So if multiple users are working then they are each making edits into their own private copy of the file.
Periodically (ie pretty quick) the OneDrive program looks at each user's private file and decides which of the files is the most recent. That most recent file is then pushed out to all other users overwriting their own private copy.
What does this mean - can OneDrive ever work for anything? Yes. Here's some scenarios where it works.
if multiple people are reading a file such as word document or a spread sheet and not making changes to it then multiple people can be reading the file. If one user changes it then that change will be pushed out to each of the other users.
Here's an example where OneDrive/DropBox etc would work for MiniMRP. A user has MiniMRP on their work computer and makes edits to the data. Then goes home and fires up their home computer and carries on working with the data. This would likely work fine. There's only one person editing the data at any one time.
It could also work in an office where a morning worker goes home at lunch time and an afternoon worker comes in and works on his own computer. Again, both users are not using/editing at the same time.
But it's really not recommended to use one of those file sharing things for any live shared database. | |
| By: Guest | Posted on: Sep 8 2024 at 08:20:55 AM | What about something like Azure Files, this is offered as a simple serverless file share, not sure it's simple for everyone, but could be an option, they also have free amounts.
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| By: Guest | Posted on: Sep 9 2024 at 05:28:07 AM | Amazon, Google and Microsoft - and others - all offer database servers on their servers. For example with Amazon RDS you can rent a MySQL Database server which is hosted on Amazon's servers. These servers are accessible from anywhere in the worlds and performance is just fine for MiniMRP.
Amazon charge for the amount of data/traffic but there's also a "Free Tier" which is usually more than enough for MiniMRP (Because it's so "mini")
Setting up a database on Amazon RDS is quite simple for anyone that is a little tech minded. Doesn't need a database expert. But it does need a little knowledge. But the free tier is free so have a play. It won't cost you anything.
Google also do a free tier. Personally I found google's way of handling multiple remote users - security of logins using a special key file on each user's computer to be better than Amazon's.
Microsoft's SQL Server based on MSSQL Server might not be free. I can't remember if they do a MySQL Server.
Another option is your own web server. If your company has a web server then you also likely already have a MySQL Database Server. Your website manager will know about this option.
Above I've talked a lot about "SQL Server" (MySQL/MariaDB). MiniMRP can work in two ways. One is the default file share. This is great for small office where everyone is on the same local/fast network. Each user is accessing the exact same file at the same time. But the "Pro" version of MiniMRP can also use SQL Server where the server is doing a lot of the leg work. Much better for bigger setups and remote users. | |
| By: MikeBenelux | Posted on: Sep 11 2024 at 03:07:05 AM | Above 'guest' is talking about SQL Servers MySQL/Maria DB etc.
That sounds like a kind of 'hybrid cloud' system where the program is installed into the user's desktop just like any App but the data is out in the cloud where user's access it from anywhere.
Is that right? Sound perfect. | |
| By: Guest | Posted on: Sep 11 2024 at 04:31:16 AM | It does sound perfect, shame Minimrp does not sell it as service. I looked into it, but it was not simple to setup.
I also just wanted a simple file sharing cloud service, but could not verify this would work (I.e. like the Azure File Share). | |
| By: Guest | Posted on: Sep 12 2024 at 12:01:37 PM | Here's explanation.
File Share. ie not using an SQL Server of any kind. Just sharing a file. This is the default mode used by MiniMRP
When a program runs on your computer and it opens a file that is also located on your computer a large portion, maybe even all of the file, is loaded into your computer's memory where the program can read/write through it quickly. As an example the user keys in a word or a few letters/numbers asking the program to search for all parts containing that word. Almost the whole file is read into computer memory so that the program can search through the file looking for occurrences of that word.
If the file is located somewhere else the - a file share on the same network - the same amount of the file still need to be loaded into your computer's memory so all of that data is transferred over the network. If the network is fast such as a local area network then the time taken to load the file into memory is pretty quick. Almost as quick as if the file was already on your computer.
But if the file was located remotely and being accessed over the internet where the network speed might be pretty slow then using such a file share where lots of data needs to be transferred makes the program almost unusable.
SQL Server
The program running on your computer never actually 'opens' the data file. The whole data file is never transferred over any network. When the user keys in the a search word or phrase that search word is sent to SQL Server. The server process opens the data file and searches for all records that contain the search criteria. Pretty fast because the server and the data are in the same remote machine. When SQL Server has found the data ONLY the required data is sent over the network.
So you see that when using file share requires huge amounts of data to be sent across the network. Using a proper database server, such as SQL Server, only the queries and the results are sent over the network.
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